Many businesses have dedicated communications systems that enable computers, servers, printers, facsimile machines and the like to communicate with each other, through a private network, and with remote locations via a telecommunications service provider. In, for example, most commercial office buildings, the dedicated communications system is hard wired using communications cables that contain conductive wire. In such hard wired systems, individual connector ports such as modular wall jacks are mounted in most or all of the offices throughout the building. Communications cables are run through, for example, the walls and/or ceiling of the building to electrically connect each connector port to network equipment that is located in, for example, a telecommunications closet or computer room. Communications lines from, for example, network servers and/or the interface hub of a main frame computer may also terminate within the computer room or telecommunications closet, as may communication lines from external telecommunication service providers.
A communications patching system is often used to interconnect the various communication lines (e.g., communications cables) within a computer room or telecommunications closet. Communications patching systems are typically used to terminate the communications lines within a building because the number of communications lines is often quite large, and such patching systems may facilitate terminating the lines in an organized fashion and can simplify the process for later making changes to the connections between communications lines. Typically, a communications patching system includes one or more mounting frames, usually in the form of equipment racks. Network equipment such as, for example, network servers and switches may be mounted on these mounting frames, as may one or more “patch panels.” As is known to those of skill in the art, a “patch panel” refers to an interconnect device that includes a plurality of connector ports such as, for example, communications jacks or fiber optic couplers on one side thereof. One or more communications cables may also be terminated into the patch panel, usually on a reverse side thereof (the conductors of each cable can be terminated into individual contacts such as, for example, insulation displacement contacts that are often used to terminate the conductors of a twisted pair cable, or may be terminated using a connector port such as would be the case with an RJ-45 to RJ-45 patch panel). The patch panel may provide communications paths between each connector port and a respective one of the communications cables that is terminated into the patch panel. As discussed below, communications patching systems may be used to connect each individual connector port in an office building (or portion thereof) to, for example, network equipment that is co-located in the telecommunications closet and/or to external communications lines.
By way of example, FIG. 1 illustrates one exemplary configuration of the equipment in a computer room 2 of an office building. As shown in FIG. 1, a first equipment rack 10 is provided. A plurality of patch panels 12 are mounted on the first equipment rack 10. Each patch panel 12 includes a plurality of port assemblies 14. Each illustrated poll assembly 14 contains a plurality of connector ports 16. In the illustrated embodiment, each connector port 16 comprises a modular RJ-45 jack that is configured to receive a modular RJ-45 plug connector. In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, six such RJ-45 jacks are provided per port assembly 14, and four port assemblies 14 are provided per patch panel 12 for a total of twenty-four jacks per patch panel 12. While FIG. 1 illustrates patch panels 12 that have RJ-45 connector ports 16, it will be appreciated that other types of patch panels are known, including patch panels with optical fiber ports (e.g., SC, ST, and FC ports), patch panels with other types of twisted copper wire pair connector ports 16 (e.g., RJ-11 ports) and patch panels that include multiple different types of connector ports. The number of connector ports 16 per port assembly 14 may also vary, as may the total number of connector ports 16 per patch panel 12. In some patch panels 12, a larger number of individual connector ports 16 may be used as opposed to port assemblies 14 that include a plurality of connector ports 16.
As is also shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of communications cables 20 are routed into the computer room 2. As shown with respect to one exemplary communications cable 20, each cable 20 may be connected to the back end of, for example, modular wall jacks 22 that are mounted in wall plates 24 in offices 4 throughout the office building. Thus, each communications cable 20 is routed from a jack 22 through, for example, the walls and/or ceiling of the building, to the computer room 2, where each communications cable 20 is terminated onto the back end of one of the connector ports 16 of one of the patch panels 12. Computers 26 (and/or other equipment that is connected to the network) may be connected to respective of the modular wall jacks 22 by, for example, a patch cord 28. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, a communications path is established between each computer 26 (or other piece of networked equipment) and a respective one of the connector ports 16 on one of the patch panels 12 mounted on equipment rack 10.
As is further shown in FIG. 1, a second equipment rack 30 may be provided in, for example, the computer room 2. Network equipment such as, for example, one or more network servers 40, are mounted on rack 30. One or more external communications lines 50 are connected to one or more of the network servers 40. A plurality of switches 60 may also be provided. In the particular communications patching system of FIG. 1, each of the switches 60 includes a plurality of connector ports 66. The switches 60 may be connected to one or more of the servers 40 using patch cords 70. The ends of each patch cord 70 are terminated with connectors 78, such as, for example, an RJ-45 or RJ-11 plug. As is also shown in FIG. 1, a second set of patch cords 76 that include connectors 78 on each end thereof may be used to interconnect a connector port 16 on one of the patch panels 12 with a connector port 66 on one of the switches 60. In order to simplify FIG. 1, only a single patch cord 70 and a single patch cord 76 are shown. Typically, however, multiple patch cords 70 will be provided that connect connector ports 66 with connector ports 46 on the servers 40, and a large number of patch cords 76 will be provided that connect connector ports 66 on the switches 60 with connector ports 16 on patch panels 12. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, the above described communications patching system may be used to connect each computer, printer, facsimile machine and the like 26 located throughout the office building to the network servers 40 by respective communications paths that extend from the computer 26 at issue, through a patch cord 28 to a modular wall jack 22, through a cable 20 that connects each wall jack 22 to a connector port 16, through a patch cord 76 to a connector port 66 on switch 60, and through a patch cord (or other communications cable) 70 to a network server 40.
In many businesses, each employee is assigned his or her own computer network access exchange number so that the employee can interface with a main frame computer or computer network. When the employee changes office locations, it may not be desirable to provide that employee with a new access exchange number. Rather, to preserve consistency in communications, it may be preferred that the access exchange number (or numbers) of the communication connector port in the employee's old office (e.g., the modular wall jack 22 of FIG. 1) be transferred to the connector port in the employee's new office. To accomplish this task, patch cords in the telecommunication closet are rearranged (e.g., patch cord 76 in FIG. 1 may be removed from a first connector port 16 and plugged into a different connector port 16) so that the employee's old access exchange number(s) are now received in his/her new office.
As employees move, change positions, and/or add communications lines, the patch cords in a typical telecommunications closet may be rearranged quite often. As it is desirable to keep track of these changes for many different reasons, the interconnections of the various patch cords in a telecommunications closet are often logged in either a paper or computer-based log. However, technicians may neglect to update the log each and every time a change is made, and/or may make errors in logging changes. As such, paper or computer based logs may more often than not fail to be 100% accurate so that the technician cannot have full confidence from reading the log where each of the patch cords begins and ends. Accordingly, each time a technician needs to change a patch cord, the technician often manually traces that patch cord between two connector ports. To perform a manual trace, the technician locates one end of a patch cord and then manually follows the patch cord until he/she finds the opposite end of that patch cord. Once the two ends of the patch cord are located, the patch cord can be positively identified.
Unfortunately, due to the large number of patch cords that are typically being used at any one time and/or the cable routing mechanisms that are typically used to keep the cable portions of each patch cord out of the way and neatly routed, it may take a significant amount of time for a technician to manually trace a particular patch cord. Furthermore, manual tracing may not be completely accurate and technicians may accidentally go from one patch cord to another during a manual trace. Such errors may result in misconnected communication lines which must be later identified and corrected. Also, it may be difficult to identify the correct port to which a particular patch cord end should be connected or disconnected. Thus, ensuring that the proper connections are made can be time-consuming, and the process is prone to errors in both the making of connections and in keeping records of the connections.
It will be appreciated that the patching system described above with respect to FIG. 1 is exemplary in nature, and is discussed merely for purposes of describing one exemplary prior art communications patching system which could be upgraded to include various of the features of embodiments of the present invention. Numerous changes could be made thereto including, without limitation, using different types of patch panels, including more or less equipment racks, changes in the type of network or other equipment that is connected through the patching system, etc. As one specific example, FIG. 1 depicts a simplified version of an “inter-connect” patching system. However, another commonly used equipment configuration which are typically referred to as “cross-connect” patching systems has the communications path from a modular wall jack (e.g., jack 22) to a network sever (e.g., server 40) pass through at least two patch panels 12 instead of passing directly from a patch panel 12 to a switch 60 as shown in the inter-connect arrangement of FIG. 1. In cross-connect systems, the connector ports 66 of switches 60 may, for example, be terminated via cables that are hard-wired into the back end of individual connector ports 16 on the last patch panel 12 in the chain of two or more patch panels. Thus, in cross-connect systems the patch cords 76 in FIG. 1 may be used to interconnect connector ports 16 on two different patch panels 12, instead of being used to connect a patch panel connector port 16 to a switch connector port 66. Those of skill in the art will realize that numerous other equipment configurations are possible. Accordingly, the above-description is not intended to be limiting with respect to the present invention that is described and claimed herein.
Systems are known in the art that are designed to at least partially automate the process of detecting and identifying the ends of patch cords in a telecommunications closet. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,222,908 describes a communications patching system in which each patch cord connector (e.g., plug) includes a unique identifier, and each connector port on the patch panels includes a sensor that reads the unique identifier on any patch cord connector inserted therein. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 6,784,802 describes a system for monitoring connectivity in a cable system that includes radio frequency identification transponders on cable ends and radio frequency identification sensors at connection points. These sensors are connected to a central monitoring system that records the presence of a particular cable at a particular connection point. U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,710 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,994 describe other prior art techniques.